Mike was born and raised in Reno, Nevada. He then studied at UC Berkeley, graduating with Highest Honors with a BS in chemical engineering with a concentration in applied physical science and a minor in materials science in 2011. Subsequently, Mike moved to Caltech to perform doctoral research under the advisement of Professor Thomas F. Miller III, becoming a fellow of the Resnick Institute in 2012 and obtaining his ChE PhD in 2016 for studies in path-integral and coarse-graining strategies for complex molecular phenomena. His thesis earned him the Herbert Newby McCoy Award for outstanding achievement in research in chemistry.
He moved to Chicago and joined the de Pablo Group in November 2016 and is currently a postdoctoral scholar for the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. He will join the Princeton CBE Department in January 2020 as an assistant professor (https://cbe.princeton.edu/michael-webb).
Outside of research, Mike enjoys playing/watching sports, training for triathlons, and hanging out with his wife and cats.
Mike is interested in using statistical mechanics and molecular simulation to study physical and chemical processes that span multiple timescales and lengthscales, often with an emphasis on soft matter materials. His research often seeks to connect molecular-level details to physical observables, requiring both the application and development of theoretical techniques that permit the systems or processes to be studied. His graduate work principally involved the study and prediction of (1) ion-transport phenomena in polymers and (2) isotope effects relevant to atmospheric and geochemical processes.
In the de Pablo group, Mike’s research centers on enhanced sampling strategies, nuclear quantum effects at interfaces, and the structure and dynamics of high-molecular weight polymer systems.
Role of Molecular Architecture on Ion Transport in Ethylene oxide-Based Polymer Electrolytes
Deng, Chuting, et al. "Role of Molecular Architecture on Ion Transport in Ethylene oxide-Based Polymer Electrolytes." Macromolecules 54.5 (2021): 2266-2276. Chuting Deng, Michael A. Webb, Peter Bennington, Daniel Sharon, Paul F. Nealey, Shrayesh N. Patel, Juan J. de Pablo
Role of solvation site segmental dynamics on ion transport in ethylene-oxide based side-chain polymer electrolytes
Bennington, Peter, et al. "Role of solvation site segmental dynamics on ion transport in ethylene-oxide based side-chain polymer electrolytes." Journal of Materials Chemistry A 9.15 (2021): 9937-9951. Peter Bennington, Chuting Deng, Daniel Sharon, Michael A. Webb, Juan J. de Pablo, Paul F. Nealey, Shrayesh N. Patel
New frontiers for the materials genome initiative
Juan J. de Pablo, Nicholas E. Jackson, Michael A. Webb, Long-Qing Chen, Joel E. Moore, Dane Morgan, Ryan Jacobs, Tresa Pollock, Darrell G. Schlom, Eric, S. Toberer, James Analytis, Ismaila Dabo, Dean M. DeLongchamp, Gregory A. Fiete, Gregory M. Grason, Geoffroy Hautier, Yifei Mo, Krishna Rajan, Evan J. Reed, Efrain Rodriguez, Vladan Stevanovic, Jin Suntivich, Katsuyo Thornton, Ji-Cheng Zhao. New frontiers for the materials genome initiative. npj Computational Materials. 2019. Vol. 5, Pg. 41.
Electronic structure at coarse-grained resolutions from supervised machine learning
Jackson, Nicholas E., et al. "Electronic structure at coarse-grained resolutions from supervised machine learning." Science advances 5.3 (2019): eaav1190.
Recent advances in machine learning towards multiscale soft materials design
Jackson, Nicholas E., Michael A. Webb, and Juan J. de Pablo. "Recent advances in machine learning towards multiscale soft materials design." Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering 23 (2019): 106-114.
Graph-Based Approach to Systematic Molecular Coarse-Graining
Webb, Michael A., Jean-Yves Delannoy, and Juan J. de Pablo. "Graph-Based Approach to Systematic Molecular Coarse-Graining." Journal of chemical theory and computation 15.2 (2018): 1199-1208.
Layered nested Markov chain Monte Carlo
Jackson, Nicholas E., Michael A. Webb, and Juan J. de Pablo. "Layered nested Markov chain Monte Carlo." The Journal of chemical physics 149.7 (2018): 072326.
Ssages: Software suite for advanced general ensemble simulations
Sidky, Hythem, et al. "Ssages: Software suite for advanced general ensemble simulations." The Journal of chemical physics 148.4 (2018): 044104.